HAPPIER TIMES

Margaret and Jenny were invited to supper in the Painter’s small kitchen for Betty Ann’s sixth birthday. They brought a pretty hanky and some anklets for Betty Ann, who was very excited over the party for her and sat in her high chair trying to talk. Jenny picked at the breaded tomatoes that were being served, but everyone else seemed to like them. They were one of Betty Ann’s favorite foods and she kept asking for more. Beulah’s pretty sister, Gloria, came out from town, where she worked at the hotel which her parents had run when they were alive. She brought the cake. Even the Grandmother came over from her room to have this special meal with them. It was very crowded, but merry. The birthday cake was white, with white icing and colored sprinkles. Beulah sent home two pieces with them on a plate. It was so nice. Daddy came in the car to pick them up, because it was night.

When Jenny was five, Beulah brought her a wonderful birthday card., the first she had ever seen. On the inside was a dried miniature bouquet of lavender flowers under a cut out oval protected by cellophane. Jenny kept it in the drawer of the white table in the kitchen that held the water pail and dipper, and the almanac and the two magazines they subscribed to, “The American Legion,” and the “Kansas Farmer.” She kept it for months, until it became soiled from so much handling with her often grubby fingers. When it was still new, she would take it out and show it to people who came to visit.

One day in autumn, when Sonny was seven, he came to door and asked to borrow the hasher. He talked very slowly in a somewhat low raspy voice and could be hard to understand. They tried to figure out what he was talking about and he said, “You put it in the wash tub like this.” He demonstrated by acting it out. He placed the imaginary tool in his hands over the imaginary tub, and danced it up and down as if he were mashing potatoes. Mother went into the pantry and brought out the clothes dasher and asked, “Is this what you mean?”

His ugly face broke into a slow grin and he said, “Uh huh.”

“How do you like school/” Margaret asked. He had just started to school that fall and went to a different school than Margaret did as they were in the district to the west.

“I don like it.”

“Why don’t you like it? “ She could guess what the answer might be as she had heard rumors from some of the kids in the other school.

“Cuz they calls me, ‘Fly Sitter.’”

“Why? You don’t sit on flies do you?”

“No. They sits on me.”

“Why do the flies sit on you?”

“It’s that sticky stuff I eat.”

“You mean honey? Or jam?”

He shook his head. “It’s big and pink and it grows in the garden and you pick it up in your hands and it get’s all over yer face and shirt.

“Watermelon!”

He grinned again. “Yes.”

He took the clothes dasher and went happily down the road toward the lane in his strange waddle.

“Poor Sonny!” said Mother.